


I spy with my little eye

by dreamerfound



Category: Marvel 616, West Coast Avengers
Genre: F/M, Road Trips, Team, Team Dynamics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-02
Updated: 2020-02-02
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:27:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22518472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamerfound/pseuds/dreamerfound
Summary: A long boring road trip gets on the team’s nerves.
Relationships: Gwen Poole/Quentin Quire
Comments: 2
Kudos: 20
Collections: fan_flashworks





	I spy with my little eye

**Author's Note:**

> Written for fan_flashworks challenge #288: Spy  
> Beta’d by Corvidian

"I spy with my little eye, something beginning with a J," Gwen said. She sounded way too enthusiastic considering they’d been playing this game for nearly an hour. Quentin sighed. He was bored out of his skull. "Jeff," he answered.

"You're cheating," Gwen hugged Jeff the land shark, who was currently sitting in her lap.

Seriously? Did she just accuse him of cheating? At I Spy, of all things? It wasn't even a real game. 

"Why would I need to cheat when we've been on the same stretch of nowhere for ages and the only things to spy are what's inside this stupid van with us." 

Would it even be cheating? It wasn't his fault that he was an Omega level telepath and they weren't.

"You used your mind powers and peeked into my head."

"I've got news for you sweetheart, I stay out of that crazy brain of yours as much as possible."

"Kate, Quentin called me crazy -- again."

Quentin rolled his eyes.

"Do you want me to shoot him with an arrow?" Kate asked from the front of the van.

"In the knee!!!" Gwen raised her arms in the air triumphantly, dislodging Jeff from her lap. 

"Hey," Quentin said, trying to sound more outraged than he actually felt.

"Kate I do not think you should be shooting arrows at your teammates," Noh-Varr said.

"It was a joke, Noh-Varr," said Kate.

"Hey Kate, I don't suppose you want to switch seats with me?" Johnny asked. 

"Not even if you paid me." 

Johnny and Noh-Varr were in the seats opposite Quentin and Gwen and had been mostly quiet for the last twenty minutes of the trip. It had been a long ride and Quentin had been bored for most of it. The Hawkeyes had dragged them all out -- or almost all of them (Chavez and her new girlfriend were currently MIA -- something about couple time) on a wild goose chase. What was supposed to have been a vampire lair had turned out to be an abandoned warehouse. Actually abandoned, no random supervillains loitering about or anything, just dust. Not even magical dust, ordinary boring dust. At this point, he'd spent three hours cooped up in the van and he was about ready to get out and fly, he was so bored. 

"Don't worry, I'll punish Quentin later -- in private." Gwen elbowed him in the ribs and gave him a smile. 

"Gross," Johnny muttered.

Quentin smiled at Gwen and hated himself a little for it. He was pretty sure he was falling in love with her and that sort of thing tended not to work out very well for him.

Joining up with this team was supposed to have been a distraction. Something to fend off the incessant boredom of life for a bit. He didn't plan to stay long -- or he hadn't. Now, he wasn't so sure. He liked being on a team with Gwen. She was strange, unpredictable and never ever boring. She made him want to stay on this mismatched team. She made him want to stay with her. 

They rode on for another twenty minutes. Much to his chagrin, the game continued and Gwen spied two cows, a fence and Johnny who had fallen asleep in the seat across from them. It was several moments after that last one when the van suddenly came to a stop.

"What the hell Barton, we're still in the middle of nowhere!" Quentin looked out the window but all he could see was a smashed-up car on the side of the road. He reached out and touched two minds. Interesting, one of them was a mutant. A child. 

"There's someone stopped on the side of the road in need of assistance, so we're..." 

Quentin held up his hand to stop Barton from talking, he didn't need the whole hero speech -- again. "Yeah, yeah, people in need -- whatever. Let's go" 

The car was a small grey sedan with a smashed in bumper but there was no one in sight. Quentin could sense their minds though, so maybe they were hiding or being hidden. 

"I don't see anyone," Kate said.

"Shhh -- just give me a minute." Quentin gently pushed his thoughts outward. _*Hey there, we're here to help. We're not going to hurt you -- we're superheroes.*_

At first, he thought maybe he didn't get through to them, but then all of a sudden they were just there. A mom with her kid wrapped safe in her arms. The kid was probably around eight or nine and had small horns poking through her blue hair.

Kate didn't miss a beat. "Are you okay? What happened?" 

It took a little prodding but they eventually found out that some anti-mutant assholes had followed them from a rest stop and rammed their car. They'd pulled over and the kid -- Melli -- hid them from view until they came along. 

Quentin did a quick scan of the mom's head, to see where her thoughts were, to make sure the kid was safe. He found so much love and protectiveness for her child and anger at the ones that tried to hurt her. It was disgustingly beautiful and touching and almost made him want to throw up. Quentin moved out of her mind and looked down. The child had approached him and was tugging on his t-shirt.

"Are you an X-Man?" she asked, her voice filled with awe. 

He smiled. "Sometimes, not lately though. These days I'm running with those guys." Quentin pointed back to the rest of the team. "We're the West Coast Avengers."

"Cool! Are you all mutants?"

"Nah, just me..." Quentin still didn't know what Gwen's deal was. She kept insisting she didn't have powers but he was sure she did; she had to, right? "The rest of the team is cool though." Mostly.

Kate offered to bring the mom and her kid back to headquarters with them until they could get their car fixed or whatever. Apparently Johnny knew a garage and offered to drop it off for them so it could get fixed. Noh-Varr volunteered a bit too quickly to go with him. Quentin wasn't sure he wanted to know what was going on there.

The rest of the team loaded the kid and her mom into the van and they headed home. Headquarters. Whatever. Melli and her mom took the seats across from him and Gwen, while Kate took Jeff up front with her in case the kid got scared. 

Quentin let himself zone out for a bit while Gwen entertained the kid with asinine stories. Melli giggled and Quentin tried to hide his smile. A half an hour later the kid crawled into his lap and fell asleep. Gwen rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes. Quentin tried to look annoyed as he puts an arm around her, but no one seemed to be watching and he liked this all way too much to really care what anyone else thought.


End file.
